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Practical Habits for a Life of Prayer Set sacred appointments: The prophet Daniel, even when prayer carried a sentence of death, knelt before the Lord three times daily (6:10). We, who live in the shadow of the cross and glory of the Resurrection, can do no less. Morning consecration, midday silence, and evening examination can structure the soul the same way monks structured their lives with bells in a monastery. Drink from the wells of Sacred Tradition: The Church has given us an amazing tre …

One of the alternative explanations offered to the resurrection of Jesus is the idea that, on Easter morning, the disciples simply went to the wrong tomb, one that happened to be empty, and concluded that Jesus had risen from the dead. There are multiple problems with this hypothesis. Here are the biggest ones: 1) The Gospels indicate that the women who visited the tomb were eyewitnesses of the burial. The Gospels even name the women involved. Mark states, “Mary Magdalene and Mary the mot …

God loves you as you are, but too much to leave you that way. Divine love does not leave the sinner undisturbed; it compels him to die, to rise, and to walk in “newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). And true healing, the kind of healing that lasts and sanctifies, must be deeply doctrinal, sacramental, and moral. In other words, it must convert the intellect; it must flow from the life of the Church; and it must change the very rhythm and cadence of how we live and love. Anything less is spir …

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of documents discovered at the archaeological site Qumran, by the Dead Sea, in the 1940s. Most scholars hold that they were written by the Essenes, who appear to be connected to the priests of the Jerusalem temple, though the Essenes broke away from them, believing the temple to be corrupt. The authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls believed they were living in an age shortly before a massive war between “the sons of light” (themselves) and the “ …

It’s always nice to have some basic guidelines in any endeavor. A good caddy in golf is told to “show up, keep up, and shut up.” Ronald Knox said the best advice he could give on prayer was to “pray the way you can and not the way you can’t.” The best guidance I received when going into law school was from an experienced attorney who said, “The answers are easy; the trick is to ask the right questions.” (That goes way beyond law school, by the way …